Kyouran Kakyoku
by PikaRox
Summary: Shararah, Jeido, Daichi, and their sensei Izo are sent on a mission to an abandoned mansion in the middle of nowhere - a mansion that just so happens to be the subject of some freaky folklore. But that's okay, because ghosts don't exist... Right?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me. Duh.

This is technically the second version of Kyouran Kakyoku – the first version failed kind of epically in regards to pace. I rewrote it to cut out the unnecessary bits.

That and the plot bunny bit me.

* * *

I hardly noticed the rain as I stared down at the hitai-ate lying in my hands.  
A blank hitai-ate.  
There was no village symbol engraved into the smooth metal plate, the reason being that I did not come from a Hidden Village. In fact, I'd never been to one. The first ten years of my life had been spent with my Clan, isolated deep within Hi no Kuni – the Land of Fire. The two years after that had been spent with my sensei, Atsuo, whom I saw as a surrogate father.  
He'd taught me how to fight, everything I knew of how to fight. My hands and feet were all I needed to take down any enemy I encountered. I privately believed myself to be unparalleled in hand-to-hand combat, though Atsuo had repeatedly warned me not to be cocky. I'd tried, I really had, but my arrogance won out in the end.  
Actually, it was lucky for me that I was so good at hand-to-hand combat. I was pretty hopeless with weapons. Atsuo had tried to teach me some swordplay, but I had no patience for learning the techniques he taught me, and the practice swords we used had a nasty habit of breaking when I used them. After that he'd taught me how to throw a kunai and had considerably more success; I found out that I had a decent aim. Unfortunately, throwing sharp things was about the limit of my weapons expertise. Eventually he'd given up on weaponry and reverted to hand-to-hand.  
The one thing he had not taught me, or even tried to teach me, was jutsu. Atsuo, no matter how good a sensei he was, could not teach something he didn't know.  
Which brought me back to the headband.  
"Atsuo-sensei, you... You can't give me this."  
"Why not?" he asked in his deep, warm voice.  
"I'm not a ninja! I don't know a single jutsu!"  
He smiled. "I would say that your fire-breathing is jutsu. So there's one."  
I took a shallow breath and breathed a small tongue of flame. The hiss of rain turning to steam reached my ears. "I thought you had to use hand seals for jutsu."  
Atsuo shook his head and looked away. "I know a few things about the Tanuki Clan. I'm probably the only one outside the clan that knows anything. Your clan guards its secrets with a vengeance."  
I tapped my foot impatiently. "So?"  
He glanced back to me. "A Tanuki with eyes of two different colors is deemed unnatural. You know this."  
I did. My eyes, one eye black and the other turquoise, were the reason I had come into his life. If my eyes had both stayed black, as they had been when I was born, I would never have left my clan. But at nine and a half years old, my left eye had changed.  
My hand rose to my face as I remembered. My parents had argued. They'd talked about throwing me out of the clan. For six months, whenever I returned to the trees where the Tanuki Clan lived, whenever I walked among them, I would hear whispers on the wind...  
_She should be exiled. Why did they let her stay?  
Bad luck, that's what she brings. Unmatched eyes always bring bad luck...  
_On my tenth birthday, it had finally happened. I'd been exiled.  
According to Tanuki custom, I'd received my tattoos when I turned ten – two dashed lines, red-brown, running down both my arms from shoulder to wrist. If I had stayed, my ninja training would have started then and there. I would have learned Maindojutsu and Shigaijutsu - mind and body jutsu, respectively - and hand-to-hand combat, the techniques the Hidden Villages referred to as Genjutsu, Ninjutsu, and Taijutsu. The Tanuki Clan trained their own ninja rather than living in a Hidden Village. Being nomads, it was impossible to live in one place for long. Eventually, as far as the rest of the world was concerned, the Tanuki Clan ceased to exist.  
On my tenth birthday, I'd received the tattoos. Almost as soon as they were given, I was chased from the Clan. It was soon afterward that I'd met my sensei.  
His voice startled me out of my reverie. "The Tanuki with unmatched eyes have a special jutsu. It varies from person to person, but for that one jutsu, no hand seals are needed." He grinned. "I've heard that they make up hand seals for that jutsu, just so that nobody can tell. That way, if they're stuck in a situation where they can't use hand seals, it leaves them an attack that nobody can expect."  
I blinked. "That makes sense."  
He laughed then, making me smile. His next words, however, ruined it. "Your clan is always that way. Always keeping secrets, leaving themselves as many options as possible."  
"They are not my clan anymore," I whispered.  
He shook his head again and pressed the headband into my hand. "You are still a Tanuki to me, Shararah, even if you change your name. Tanuki Kaede or Kaminari Shararah, it doesn't matter. You love your secrets, you're standoffish, you're arrogant, and you are the most difficult student I've ever had to work with."  
I looked up, startled.  
He laughed again at the expression on my face. "And you're the best student I've ever trained. Take the headband. You've earned it."  
My smile glowed.  
_Shararah's Journal – Sunday  
He gave me a hitai-ate! I can't believe it!_

"You're sure you have everything? Food? Spare clothes?"  
I sighed. "Yes, Atsuo-sensei, I have everything."  
"Your eye makeup?"  
I waved the box in front of his face. Every Tanuki wore black eye makeup, in imitation of the animal.  
"Extra bandages?"  
I took the roll out of my pack and waved that in front of his face, too. My arms were completely wrapped in bandages, hiding the tattoos that decorated my skin.  
"You have the message?"  
I showed it to him reluctantly. The message, to be delivered to the Hokage, detailed Atsuo's request for his student, i.e. me, to be taught as a ninja. If I had had my way, I wouldn't be going to Konohagakure. My skin prickled at the thought of living among so many people.  
He sighed and enveloped me in an enormous bear hug. I wrapped my arms around the big man as best I could. "Then I suppose it's time for you to go, girl."  
A single tear trickled down my cheek, breaking my shield of sarcastic arrogance. "I'll miss you."  
"I'll miss you too, sweetheart." He gently pushed me away. "You know the way?"  
"Yes, Atsuo."  
Atsuo watched me sadly walk away, my head down.  
_Shararah's Journal – Monday  
I really can't think of what to write. In one day I've gone from happy to miserable._


	2. Chapter 2

This is interesting. By the end of chapter two, I've already caught up to chapter five of the original.

* * *

I crouched on a tree branch, cloaked by the leaves, as I watched a ninja training session. I really shouldn't have been there – my instructions were to deliver the message to the Hokage as soon as I arrived, but old habits die hard. I didn't think of my actions as disobedience; I preferred to think of it as reconnaissance.  
So far, I wasn't too impressed with the team I was watching. The black-haired boy was the only one I thought I might be able to tolerate for more than five minutes, and that was only because he hadn't said much more than 'Hn' in the two hours that I'd been watching them. The other boy was hyper, the girl had gotten on my nerves within the first ten minutes, and I had a feeling I could walk up to their sensei and wave my hands in front of his face without him noticing.  
With a sigh, I silently leapt away through the trees, not knowing that I hadn't been as stealthy as I'd thought...  
"Sensei."  
Kakashi glanced at Sasuke. "Yes?"  
"Who was that?"  
Naruto jumped in before Kakashi could answer. "Who was what?"  
Sasuke gestured over his shoulder vaguely in the direction of the tree. "The person over there."  
Kakashi cut Naruto off with a look before he could interrupt again. "It was probably nothing. Back to training."

I would have been more than happy to procrastinate some more, but loyalty to Atsuo wouldn't let me delay any longer – and so, feet dragging, I made my way to the Hokage's office.  
I fidgeted impatiently as the Hokage read the scroll, rising disbelief evident in her face.  
"Very well, Kaminari Shararah. You may go." I coughed nervously. The Hokage made an exasperated noise. "What?"  
"What does the message say?"  
"Oh, just 'this is the training she has received' and blah blah blah." She raised an eyebrow. "He also specifically requests that we not send you to the Academy."  
I mentally rolled my eyes. That was typical of Atsuo, bending the rules for me.  
The Hokage tapped to message, drawing my attention back. "Is there any reason in particular that your previous training was exclusively taijutsu?"  
I blinked uncomprehendingly. "Tai-what?" Then something clicked in my head. "Oh, you mean hand-to-hand combat. Weapons and stuff. Right?"  
Tsunade sweatdropped. "Well, at least you're not completely ignorant."  
_Shararah's Journal – Tuesday  
I feel like a total idiot._

"Well, well, what have we here?"  
I jolted awake, nearly falling off of my branch. The sun filtered through the leaves of the tree I'd climbed last night to go to sleep. Sure, I could have found a place to stay – an abandoned house, maybe – but I'd always disliked not being able to see the sky. My clan was nomadic – meaning they never stayed in one place for long – and so had no form of housing. Most of the time, they slept in trees like this one, and I'd retained the habit. Even Atsuo's house had seemed closed in, closed off.  
My panic attack was interrupted by the man's voice. "Lady Hokage sent me to find you." I finally looked down. Looking up at me was the sensei from the team I had watched before. "Come down."  
I slung my pack over my shoulder and jumped, bending my knees to absorb the shock. Keeping a bored expression on my face, I looked up at him and waited for him to explain.  
He shrugged and started walking, gesturing for me to follow him. "Since you don't have an official sensei, we're just going to have to take turns training you. You have a lot to catch up on."  
_Shararah's Journal – Wednesday  
Wow, he wasn't kidding._

Several days later, my fingers traced a newly-acquired bruise on my right cheekbone. I scowled as I watched Naruto demonstrate the hand seals yet again as we waited for Kakashi to show up for training. I had no idea why Naruto kept trying to be nice to me even when I made no effort whatsoever to return the favor. His over-cheerfulness seriously got on my nerves – listening to him say "I'm going to be the next Hokage, BELIEVE IT!" made me want to punch his face in.  
Help with training, however, I wouldn't refuse. Not even from him.  
That time I got five hand seals out of twelve, which I'm ashamed to say was the best I'd done so far. My eye twitched as he began demonstrating again.

After training, I simply climbed into a tree and pulled out my journal. I was in a bad mood. Not only was I still hopeless at using jutsu, even after a week in training, but I could hardly even understand what I was _supposed _to do. I understood the _theory_, but somehow it never translated to real life. Even the most basic of jutsu were beyond my abilities.  
And my trouble with jutsu hadn't gone unnoticed. In every sparring match I had, it became a weakness. The senseis had soon given up trying to cure me of my acid tongue - I was an arrogant smart-alec and liked it that way - and it hadn't taken long for Team 7 to get tired of me. They were quick to exploit the fact that I could only use martial arts. The only time I wasn't at a disadvantage was when I sparred with Lee, who also couldn't use jutsu, although it was for entirely different reasons.  
And now I'd worked myself into a bad mood. I looked around for him.  
_Shararah's Journal – Wednesday  
Lee might be a mini-Gai, but sparring with him is fun. Ow._

I saw a flicker of movement out of my left eye, my turquoise eye. Hastily, I glanced to my right; the entire team I was training with that day was still there. I saw another flicker to my left, and my 'panic' meter hit the setting just below 'overkill'.  
Whirling, I aimed a kick – and nearly fell when my opponent caught my leg. He flipped me over, and my breath came out in a whoosh as my back hit the ground.  
"If that's the best you've got, I don't see why I'm supposed to train you. You aren't worth the effort."  
Slowly getting to my feet, I examined the man standing in front of me. He was fairly tall, with steel-gray hair and piercing ice-blue eyes. The condescending look on his face was enough to inflame my rage, even if his actions hadn't.  
Now that I was looking directly at him, I leaped, slamming him with both feet. Taken by surprise, he stumbled backward as I landed a punch in his face. Before he could retaliate, I darted behind him and shoved him to the ground.  
He flipped over and levered himself to his feet, glaring at me. I stuck out my tongue. "How's that for 'not worth the effort'?"


	3. Chapter 3

From this point on, don't expect to see much of the canon characters, if at all…

* * *

I glanced around at the clearing as I walked into it. A boy and a girl were there, and from the looks of things, they were bored. The boy was pacing back and forth, while the girl was lying down and watching the clouds.  
The boy was pale, with dark hair and sky blue eyes. There was a scar on his right cheek, a small vertical slash. A bow staff was strapped to his back, and I assumed the katana leaning against a tree nearby also belonged to him. The boy started spinning around idly as I watched. There was something about him that reminded me of Naruto, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it...  
The girl sighed, drawing my attention to her. Her hair, tied in a ponytail, was long and blonde, tipped with black at the ends. She blew her bangs away from her deep green eyes. The only sign of weaponry was a pouch strapped to her leg, possibly holding kunai or other sharp pointy throwing things.  
Suddenly I tumbled forward, pain throbbing at the back of my head. Twisting in mid-air, I managed to avoid falling flat on my face – instead, I staggered two paces backward and landed on my rear end.  
"A ninja must be alert at all times," Izo said contemptuously.

I somersaulted over Izo's head, avoiding a handful of needles he'd thrown my way. The others had responded with surprising speed to the sensei's sudden appearance – I had a feeling that this was a habit of his, to show up by launching a surprise attack.  
My head was still throbbing from where he'd punched me, and I wanted revenge. However, when I moved to attack, a bow staff came whistling out of nowhere and smacked my arm, making me yelp and draw back.  
"Sorry!" The boy called. "Look where you're going next time!"  
I growled at him and ducked under another punch. I could already tell that this whole 'fighting as a team' thing wasn't going to work out very well.

"Alright," stated Izo after he'd called a halt to the fight. "Might as well get introductions out of the way. We have a new member joining the team, in case you haven't noticed."  
The girl smiled sweetly. "I'm Tsuki Jeido. Call me Jade."  
The boy looked at me and grinned. "Kimura Daichi. Who are you?"  
"Kaminari Shararah," I said shortly.  
Daichi tilted his head slightly. "Why are your eyes all weird?"  
I narrowed said eyes at him. "They're weird because I can use them to shoot laser beams at people who annoy me. So you'd better watch your step."  
I had to stifle a laugh as he panicked. Jade didn't even bother. Trying not to laugh, I mean.  
After a moment, he figured out that I was kidding. He stuck his tongue out at me, but before he could say anything he was interrupted by Izo.  
"Introductions over? Good. Now sit down and shut up, I've got some questions for the new kid."

"If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times," I said, exasperated, after about five minutes' worth of questions. "I. Don't. Use. Jutsu."  
Izo glared at me. "Yes, you've told me that. Repeatedly. However, there are several standard questions I have to ask all of my students before I can begin training them."  
I gave an exaggerated sigh.  
"How much do you know about fighting with weapons?" Izo asked, continuing the interrogation session.  
I shrugged. "My general policy is 'if it's sharp, stab things with it'."  
Izo sweatdropped. "...And that's _all_ you know...?"  
I gave him a look. "Is there really anything else I _need_ to know?"  
He sweatdropped even harder, if that was possible.

_Shararah's Journal – Sunday  
And this guy is supposed to be my new sensei? I can't decide whether I'll commit murder or suicide first._


	4. Chapter 4

"… So… Explain this mission again."  
Izo let out an exasperated sigh. This was the third time he'd been asked to repeat himself. "We have to investigate an old mansion. Clear enough?"  
"Yes, sensei," the team replied, with varying levels of enthusiasm.  
An hour later, I met the rest of the team at the gate. The mansion was roughly in the middle of nowhere, and it would take a day or so of hiking to reach. Daichi was itching to leave, shifting impatiently from foot to foot. Jade was holding a green stone, studying it absently. I tapped her shoulder. "What is that?"  
She yelped in surprise and quickly tucked the stone in the pouch strapped to her leg – the one I'd assumed held kunai. "I-its nothing."

I stared at her thoughtfully. "Tell you what. I'll tell you why my eyes are weird if you tell me what that pebble is. Deal?"

She considered for a moment. "Deal."

While we waited for Izo to show up – I swear, it was like he planned on us being ten minutes late to everything and didn't bother arriving until then – we dropped our packs and sat down.

"You first," I suggested.

She took a deep breath. "Alright. Where to begin…" She paused a moment. "First off, it's not a pebble, it's a pearl. Everyone in my Clan has one. They're not all green; the color of the pearl is an indicator of how strong it is. Green is one of the more powerful colors… Only three people have ever had it." She paused again, rolling her head from side to side. "The pearls contain a… spiritual animal. Mine's a dragon. His name's Kirimi. I can show him to you later, if you want."

I blinked. I wasn't used to people being nice to me. Well, except Atsuo.

I winced when Daichi started poking me. "C'mon, c'mon! Your turn!"

I stared at him blankly. "When did _you_ come over here?"

"Does it matter? It's your turn! What's up with your eyes, really? And no laser stories this time!"

I sighed. "I have no idea why my eyes are different colors." They were still staring at me expectantly. "What?" I snapped. "That's it."

Jade looked hurt. "There has to be more to it than _that_," she said.

I growled to myself. They just kept staring at me, and I was eventually compelled to add to my explanation. "Alright, alright. I come from the Tanuki Clan. Have either of you heard of it? No? I thought so. Anyway, once in a while someone in the Clan is born with different color eyes, or they change while they're still young. Nobody knows exactly why; it's not genetic or because of demon-sealing or what-have-you. It just happens." They still wanted more explanation, but luckily for me Izo chose that moment to show up.

"Everyone's here? Good. Let's go."

A few minutes out of the village, we passed a house hidden in the trees. Jade was explaining more about the pearls to Daichi. She was actually really kind and friendly once you got to know her a bit.

"So, the green pearl is the most powerful. The next most powerful is the dark blue pearl, which is stronger in power than defense. That one's also pretty rare, I can only think of maybe twenty people that have ever had it."

"Jade," I interrupted. She looked up. "Whose house is that? Do you know?"

Jade blinked. "Umm… That's my house. I, uh, moved here a few months ago." I glanced at her, surprised. Apparently I wasn't the only newcomer.

Jade turned back to Daichi. "Okay, so after dark blue is the blue pearl, which is basically just average. That's the most common one. Then there's purple, which means that the spiritual animal will protect you but you're not fit to become a ninja. The gold pearls are kind of weird, because they vary in power. If you have a gold pearl, it means you're going to do something important later on in your life, and the power of the pearl depends on what kind of task you're going to do…"

Around the fire that night, Izo told us a bit more about our mission.

"Several people who live near the mansion have reported strange things happening. They asked the Hokage to send someone to investigate."

"What kind of strange things?" Daichi piped up.

Izo grunted. "Have any of you heard the name… Zetsumei?"

All three of us shook out heads. Izo sighed. "The Zetsumei Clan lived in the old mansion we have to investigate. Legend has it that while they lived… You know what? It might be easier if I just told you the story. So shut up, sit still, and no questions until I'm done talking." We nodded, and he cleared his throat and began.

_"The Zetsumei Clan had always lived in the old mansion, it seemed. At night, for as long as anyone could remember, faint screams had drifted from the top of the hill where the old mansion stood. People vanished. Messages painted in blood appeared on walls. Everyone feared the golden eyes of the Zetsumei, for to see those eyes meant death._

_Nobody tried to fight them. Nobody tried to stop them. It was simply the way things were._

_Eventually, a group of four ninja, visitors to the small village at the base of the hill, began to wonder why the Zetsumei were allowed to continue. The villagers could not provide them an answer. It was simply the way things were._

_The four decided that this had to end._

_That night, they set fire to the old mansion._

_The villagers watched in amazement and shock as the dark chakra embedded in the mansion threw glowing purple sparks through the air, and they heard the faint screams rise into deafening shrieks._

_Their amazement turned to horror as the fire turned the same color as the sparks and twisted itself away from the mansion, engulfing the four ninja. Gasps of terror were heard as thirteen sets of gleaming golden eyes appeared in front of the mansion, their owners illuminated by the purple flames. The Zetsumei Clan, far from being destroyed, had come to take its revenge…_

_"The village was destroyed by the Zetsumei. The mansion itself, charred by the flames, stands empty. The Zetsumei Clan was killed by the combined efforts of three ninja villages, and their bodies were taken far from the mansion and burned. They were gone, never to return…_

_"But at night, if you listen closely, you can still hear screams, and see what just might be ghostly golden eyes…_

Some say that the Zetsumei never truly left…"

* * *

Curled up in her sleeping bag, Shararah pulled out her journal and a pen. Quickly, before the details faded, she wrote down the legend. Then, turning to a clean page, she wrote the day's entry.

_Shararah's Journal - Thursday_

_Why on earth are they sending a _Genin_ team here?_

* * *

Oooh, ghost story! Can anyone guess what's going to happen when Team Izo goes inside the Zetsumei Mansion?


	5. Chapter 5

This is the chapter where the whole 'suspense' think starts to kick in. Coincindentally, it's also the chapter where they reach the mansion. I kind of roughly have some plan for finishing the story, but with the speed with which I'm working on this... *sigh*

* * *

It was the second day of travel, and we were nearing our destination. I had found out several things along the way.

First of all, the fact that Daichi was hyper. Very. Hyper. He just couldn't sit still. _Ever_. And it was extremely annoying.

The second thing was that I hated being the target of his special Bakufu Jutsu, which basically dumped a freaking _waterfall_ on my head.

The third thing I learned was that Izo didn't find me chasing Daichi and threatening to beat him with his own staff very amusing. Ditto when I threatened to bash his face in if he poked me one more time.

Thus, sullen and snappish, I trudged a ways behind the group. Jade, being who she was, slowed down to walk next to me – although I had a feeling that it was just as much to get away from Daichi's irritating chatter as it was to keep me company. Though she was very good at not showing it, she'd been a little irritated by Daichi as well. We watched him showing off a new technique he'd made up to Izo and simultaneously muttered "Sensei's pet."

I whistled, looking up at the charred, overgrown husk of the mansion. "That's quite a house."

Jade glanced around. "_Haunted_ house…"

Daichi looked at it curiously. "It doesn't look so scary to _me_."

Izo _tch_ed. "You say that like there was anything to be scared of in the first place. Ghosts aren't real. The Zetsumei legend was probably concocted one night by some drunk storyteller bent on scaring anyone gullible enough to believe him." So saying, he strode purposefully towards the mansion.

We glanced at each other. "Y'know, he's probably right," Daichi said. "Izo-sensei's always right!"

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, please. You'd agree with him if he said the sky was green and the moon was made of cheese." I grabbed Jade's hand and pulled her along. "Let's get going before Mr. I'm-your-sensei-and-don't-you-forget-it starts yelling at us."

The door creaked on its hinges as Izo pulled the handle. What we saw was dark and gloomy, and surprisingly under-charred. The outer walls had done a decent job of protecting the inside from the flames.

Nobody moved for a few minutes. Izo glared at us. "Well…?"

We glanced at each other again. Nobody seemed very eager to go in first.

"Oh, for Heaven's sake…!"

And he shoved us all inside.

"All right, you three. No more nonsense. I can't make myself any clearer - There. Are. No. Such. Things. As. Ghosts. So shut up and keep moving, and the first person to say a word about ghosts is going to be on dishwashing missions for a month."

We wisely shut up and kept moving. Or rather, we were _going _to wisely shut up and keep moving, but the front door chose that moment to shut with an eerie creak - and there was an ominous _click_ as the door locked itself.


End file.
